LiveFyre…. Heard of it? It’s a real time WordPress comment plugin that I’ve installed on my blog.

After receiving an enormous amount of spam comments I decided to look for another commenting system to use.

I came across LiveFyre and I have to say, so far I really like it!

What sets LiveFyre apart from some of the other commenting systems I’ve used is that it’s truly integrated with social media.

Users can login with their Facebook, Twitter, Google, Linkedin or OpenID account.

At first I that this would cause people to not want to leave a comment but it hasn’t been a problem at all. Because all you have to do is click on the social site you want to login as.

Here are some of the features of LiveFyre

1. Comments show up on your blog in real time. No need to refresh the page.
2. You can tag your Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LiveFyre members in your comments.
3. When you tag someone they are notified via email and the comment they were tagged in will show up on their Twitter page and or Facebook wall.
4. They can reply to your comment directly from Twitter and Facebook and their reply will automatically be pulled into your blog comments.
5. A list of people “Listening” or following the conversation but my not have necessarily added a comment.
6. Registered users receive points whenever someone else “Likes” your comment.
7. Share’s a link to your most recent blog post when you leave a comment.

Here’s a snap shot of LiveFyre on my blog. Click to view larger image.

What I’ve Discovered Since Switching To LiveFyre

The biggest benefits I’ve seen since making the switch, has been an increase in my blog traffic and the increase in how much my content is being shared on FaceBook and Twitter.

(Speaking of Twitter, Check out this post to see “How To Create Leads Right From My Twitter Profile“)

I’ve also noticed that I have received a fair amount of people coming to my blog that may not have found it, had it not been for the increase in sharing of my content.

One thing that I was concerned about was, would I lose some or all of my current comments, if I discovered that I did not like LiveFyre and wanted to switch back to CommentLuv which is want I was previously using.

The answer is no! I did not lose any. I activated and deactivated the plugin several times and had no problems.

One issue I discovered…. After you leave your very first comment. LiveFyre will select a link to one of your blog’s pages instead of to your latest blog post to display. If you look at the image above near the bottom of the image, you can see what I’m talking about. LiveFyre has added a link to my “Contact” page….

But this will correct itself once you add a new blog post.

LiveFyre is free and gives you 2 million views a month. There is a upgraded version 20 million views and some other benefits. You can click here to compare the two versions.

Installing LiveFyre

Install the LiveFyre plugin is very simple. You install it just as you would any other WordPress plugin.

• Log into your WordPress admin area,
• Click on the “Plugins” tab a long the left side of the screen,
• Click Add new,
• Type LiveFyre in the search box
• Select the plugin from the list of responses
• Click install

Conclusion